KR20040035678A - Photonic mems and structures - Google Patents

Abstract

The interferometric modulator IMod includes an antireflective coating 100 and / or a micro-fabricated auxiliary illumination source. An efficient drive scheme is provided with matrix addressed arrays of IMods 108 or other mechanical devices. The improved color scheme provides greater flexibility. Electronic hardware may be a field that is reconfigured to accommodate different display formats and / or application functionality. The electromechanical operation of the IMod can be decoupled from its optical operation. Improved means of operation are provided, some of which may not be observed. IMod or IMod array 108 is manufactured and used with MEMS switches or switch arrays. IMod may be used for optical switching and modulation. Some IMods include 2-D and 3-D photonic structures. Various applications for modulating light are disclosed. If provided, MEMS manufacturing and packaging methods are based on a continuous web process. IMods can be used as test structures for the measurement of residual stress in deposited materials.

Description

PHOTONIC MEMS AND STRUCTURES {PHOTONIC MEMS AND STRUCTURES}

Background technology

This application is partly filed in US patent application Ser. No. 08 / 238,750, filed May 5, 1994 and registered as U.S. Patent No. 5,835,255, and filed in International Application No. PCT / US95 / 05358, filed May 1, 1995. And a partial continuing application of US patent application Ser. No. 08 / 744,253, filed November 5, 1996.

The present invention relates to interferometric modulation.

An interferometric modulator IMod modulates the incident beam by manipulating the optical characteristics of the micromechanical device. This is done by changing the IMod of the device using various techniques. IMod provides itself for many applications, from flat panel displays and optical computing to optical fiber-optic modulators and projection displays. Different applications can be addressed by using different IMod designs.

summary

In general, in one aspect, the invention features an IMod comprising an antireflective coating and / or a micro-fabricated auxiliary illumination source.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features an efficient drive scheme for matrix addressed arrays of IMod or other micromechanical devices.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features a color scheme that provides greater flexibility.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features electronic hardware that may be fields that are reconfigured to accommodate different display formats and / or application functionality.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features an IMod design that decouples IMod electromechanical operation in optical operation of the IMod.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features an IMod design with another means of operation, some of which cannot be observed.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features an MEod switch or switch array, and / or an IMod or IMod array that is used and manufactured with MEMS-based logic.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features an IMod that can be used for optical switching and modulation.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features an IMod comprising 2-D and 3-D photonic structures.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features various applications for light modulation.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features a MEMS manufacturing and packaging method based on a continuous web fed process.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features an IMod used as a test structure for measuring residual stress of a deposited film.

Description of the Drawings

1A is a cross-sectional view of a display substrate including an antireflective coating and embedded auxiliary illumination. 1b shows another way for auxiliary lighting.

2 shows a detailed manufacturing process of a micromechanical arc lamp source.

3 illustrates a bias center driving scheme for an IMod array in a display.

4A is a diagram illustrating a color display system based on the concept of "base + pigment". 4B is a block diagram of a system that provides fields for reconfiguring display centric products. 4C is a diagram illustrating a concept applied to a general-purpose display-oriented product.

FIG. 5A is a diagram illustrating an IMod geometry that decouples optical operation from electromechanical operation, shown in a non-operational state. FIG. 5B is a diagram illustrating the same IMod in an operating state. 5C is a graph showing the performance of IMod in black and white state. 5D is a graph showing the performance of various color states.

6A is a diagram of an IMod that similarly decouples optical operation from electromechanical operation but with the support structure obscured. 6B is a view showing the same design in an operating state.

FIG. 7A shows an IMod design using a membrane subjected to anisotropic stress in one state. FIG. 7B shows the same IMod in another state.

8A illustrates IMod according to a rotation operation. 8B shows a manufacturing sequence of a rotating IMod design.

9A is a block diagram of a MEMS switch. 9B is a block diagram of a row driver based on a MEMS switch. 9C is a block diagram of a column driver based on a MEMS switch. 9D is a block diagram of a NAND gate based on a MEMS switch. 9E is a block diagram of a display system including a MEMS based on logic and driver components.

10A illustrates the structure, manufacture, and operation of a MEMS switch. 10B is a diagram illustrating two further switch designs.

11A is a diagram illustrating an example of a microring based on a 2-D photonic structure. 11B illustrates a periodic 2-D photonic structure.

12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a 3-D photonic structure.

13A shows the same IMod including the microring structure in the inoperative state. 13B is a diagram illustrating the same IMod in the operating state. 13C illustrates an IMod that includes a periodic 2-D photonic structure.

14A is a diagram illustrating an IMod design operating as an optical switch. 14B is a diagram illustrating various designs that operate as optical attenuators.

15A is a diagram of an IMod design that functions as an optical switch or optical decoupler. 15B is a diagram illustrating how such a combination of IMods acts as an N × N optical switch.

FIG. 16 illustrates a manufacturing sequence of a tunable IMod structure. FIG.

17A is a diagram illustrating how a variable IMod structure can be included in a wavelength selection switch. FIG. 17B is a diagram illustrating how a wavelength selection switch can be included in solid state devices. FIG. FIG. 17C illustrates how a bump-bonded component can be included. FIG.

18A is a schematic diagram of a two-channel equalizer / mixer. 18B is a diagram illustrating how an equalizer / mixer may be implemented using IMod based components.

19 illustrates a continuous web-based manufacturing process.

20 is a diagram illustrating how an IMod based test structure can be used as a tool for stress measurement.

21A-21C show.

Anti-reflective coatings

The characteristics of the aforementioned IMod design (inductive absorber design disclosed in U.S. Patent Application No. 08 / 554,630, filed November 6, 1995 and incorporated herein by reference) are in a dark state capable of absorbing at least 99.7% of incident light. Efficiency in. This is useful for reflective displays. In the described design, the IMod reflects light of a particular color in the non-operating state and absorbs the light in the operating state.

Since the IMod array is on the substrate, the potential for absorption is determined by the intrinsic reflection of the structure. For glass substrates, the amount of reflection is typically about 4% of the visible spectrum. Thus, despite the absorbability of the IMod structure, the dark state will only be sufficient to allow front surface reflections from the substrate.

One way to improve the overall performance of an IMod based display is to include an antireflective coating (AR coating). Such coatings may include one or more insulating layers deposited on the surface of the substrate and are designed to reduce reflections from the surface. There are many other possible configurations for such membranes and designs, and methods for making them are known. One simple membrane design is a single coating of magnesium fluoride, about 1/4 wave thick. Another example is depositing 1/4 wave thick lead fluoride on glass followed by 1/4 wave thick magnesium fluoride, with a third example sandwiching a zinc sulfide film between the two.

1A illustrates one method of including an AR coating in an IMod display to improve the performance of the display system. In FIG. 1A, as described, an AR coating 100 comprising one or more thin films is deposited on the surface of the glass layer 102 bonded to the glass substrate 106, and the IMod array 108 on the opposite side. ) Is manufactured. The presence of the AR coating 100 reduces the amount of incident light 109 reflected off the surface by bonding more to the glass layer 102. As a result, when the IMod is operating in the absorption mode, more incident light is operated by the IMod array, so that a darker display state can be obtained. AR coating 100 could also be deposited directly on the surface of the glass substrate 106 on the side opposite the IMod array.

Built lighting

1A also shows how auxiliary lighting can be provided to such a display. In this case, microscopic arc lamps 104 are produced in the glass layer 102. Arc lamps are an efficient light source. Typically, arc lamps have been manufactured using techniques related to the manufacture of common light bulbs. Typical aspects of such lamps are described in US Pat. No. 4,987,496. Glass vessels are installed and individually manufactured electrodes are enclosed inside the tubes. After filling with a suitable gas, the tube is sealed. Although such bulbs can be made small, this manufacturing method will not be suitable for the production of such large monolithic arrays of bulbs.

The technology used to manufacture micromechanical structures can be applied to the production of ultrafine discharges or arc lamps. Because of the ultrafine size of "microlamps", the voltages and currents driving them are much lower than what is required to provide arc lamps manufactured using conventional means and sizes. In the example of FIG. 1A, the array is fabricated such that the light 113 emitted by the lamp is directed to the IMod array 108 by the intrinsic reflective layer 111.

2 provides details of how such a lamp may be provided that is optimized for flat panel displays. The sequence is described as follows. As shown in step 1, the glass layer 200 is etched using wet or dry chemical etching to form a reflector bowl 201. The depth and shape of the bowl is determined by the area of illumination required for each lamp. Shallow bowls produce widely reflected beam spreading, while parabolic shapes parallel the reflected light. The diameter of the bowl can vary from 10 to several hundred microns. This dimension is determined by the display area value that can be appropriately blurred from the viewer's perspective. This is also a function of the array density of the micro-lamps. Reflector / metal halide layer 204 and sacrificial layer 202 are deposited and patterned using standard deposition techniques such as sputtering, and standard photolithographic techniques. The reflector / metal halide layer can be a film stack comprising aluminum (reflector) and metal halides such as tantalum iodide, calcium iodide, and indium iodide. Metal halides are not essential but can improve the properties of the light produced. The sacrificial layer can be, for example, a layer such as silicon.

Next, electrode layer 206 may be deposited and patterned to form two separate electrodes. This material may be a refractory metal such as tungsten and may have a sufficient thickness to provide a mechanical support in units of thousands of kilowatts. Next, the sacrificial film 202 is removed by a dry release technique. The assembly (in the form of an array of such lamps) is sealed by bonding to a glass plate, such as a substrate 106 (shown in FIG. 1A) opposite the plate. Gases such as xenon are used to backfill the cavity formed by the lamp to a pressure of about 1 atmosphere during the sealing process. This can be done by performing a sealing process in a closed chamber that has already been filled with xenon.

The application of sufficient voltage to each electrode of each lamp will cause electrical discharge in the gas between the electrode ends and light emission 205 in the direction away from the reflector 204. If the gap spacing is several hundred microns or less, the voltage can be as low as a few tens of volts. If the electrode material is deposited with minimal stress, it will determine the position of the electrode of the sacrificial film 202 inside the bowl. In this case, the thickness is selected as the discharge position at the concentration point of the bowl. If there is a residual stress that moves the electrode upon removal, the thickness is chosen to compensate for this movement. In general, the thickness will be several to tens of microns in some fraction of the depth of the bowl.

Referring again to FIG. 1A, it is shown that light travels along path 113. That is, light is emitted towards the IMod array, which is operated and reflected continuously by the array along the path 110 towards the interface 107 and the observer 111.

The lamp may be manufactured without a reflector layer to emit light omnidirectionally.

Lamps with or without reflectors can be used in a variety of applications requiring ultrafine light sources or arrays of light sources. This may include a backlight for a common light source, projection display, or emissive flat panel display for interior (home, building) or exterior (car, flashlight) use.

According to FIG. 1B, another auxiliary illumination method is shown. Light guide 118 includes a glass or plastic layer that has been adhered to substrate 112. A light source 116, which may include any number of fluorescent tubes, LED arrays, or light emitting light sources such as the micro-lamp arrays described above, is mounted on the opposite side of the light guide. Light 122 is coupled to the light guide using spectrometer 120 such that most of the light is trapped inside the guide through total internal reflection. Scattering pad 124 is a light guide region that is roughened by wet or dry chemical means. The scattering pads are coated with a reflective surface facing the substrate 112 and a thin film stack 126 or material for representing the absorbing surface towards the observer 128.

When light trapped inside the guide is incident on the scattering pad, the conditions for total internal reflection are violated and some portion 129 of the light is scattered in all directions. Generally, scattered light that leaks out to the surrounding medium, ie toward the observer 128, is reflected to the substrate 112 due to the appearance of the reflective side of the coating 126. Like the micro-lamps described above, the scattering pads are made in an array, and each pad is dimensioned so that a portion of the dim display is rarely perceived directly from the watch. While the dimensions are small on the order of tens of microns, they can provide sufficient auxiliary light sources due to the inherent optical efficiency of the underlying IMod array 114. The shape of the scattering pads can be round, rectangular or any shape that can minimize their perception by the viewer.

Addressing Elements in Arrays

In order to accurately align the IMod in the coordinate format for display purposes, a series of voltages are applied to the rows and columns of the array, commonly known as the "line at the time" form. The basic concept is to apply sufficient voltage to a particular row such that the voltage applied to the selected column is such that the corresponding element on the selected row operates or is released according to the column voltage. The threshold and applied voltage should ensure that only the devices on the selected row are affected by the application of the column voltage. The entire array can be addressed over a time period by sequentially selecting a set of rows containing the display.

One simple way of doing this is shown in FIG. 3. The hysteresis curve 300 is an ideal representation of the electrical response of the reflective IMod. The x-axis represents the applied voltage and the y-axis represents the amplitude of the reflected light. As the voltage increases past the pull-in threshold, IMod exhibits hysteresis because the IMod structure operates and absorbs significantly. When the applied voltage is reduced, in order to return this structure to the unapplied state, the applied voltage must be below the release threshold. The difference between the pull-in threshold and the release threshold creates a hysteresis window. Other addressing schemes and hysteresis effects are disclosed in US patent application Ser. No. 08 / 744,252, filed November 5, 1996, incorporated herein by reference. The hysteresis window can be used at any time by maintaining a bias voltage (V _bias ), maintaining IMod regardless of the state of being driven and released. Voltages V _off and V _on correspond to the voltages needed to operate and release the IMod structure. The array is driven by applying voltages to the columns and rows using an electrical machine known as a column and row driver. IMod was manufactured with a pull-in threshold of 6 volts and a release threshold of 3 volts. For such a device, typical values for V _bias , V _off and V _on are 4.5 V, 0 V, and 9 V, respectively.

In FIG. 3, timing diagram 302 shows the type of waveform that can be applied to operate an array of IMods representing a curve 300 similar to a hysteresis curve. The sum of five voltages, two column voltages and three low voltages is required. Voltage is exactly two times the value V _col1 the V _bias is selected to be V 0 V _col1 this. The low voltage is _selected such that the difference between V _selF0 and V _col0 and the difference between V _selF0 and V _col1 are equal to V _off . Conversely, the difference between V _selF1 and V _col1 and the difference between V _selF1 and V _col0 are chosen to be equal to V _off .

Addressing is created by alternating frames 0 and 1. In a typical addressing sequence, data for row 0 is loaded into the column driver during frame 0, _{such that} the voltage level of V _col1 or V _col0 is provided depending on whether the data is binary or zero, respectively. When the data is confirmed, row driver 0 applies a select pulse with a value of V _selF0 . Any IMod result on the column with V _col0 appears to be working, and the IMod on the column with V _col1 appears to be released. The data for the next row is loaded into the column and a selection pulse is applied continuously until the end of the display is reached. At this point, addressing begins again with row 0; At this point, addressing occurs in frame 1.

The difference between the frames is that the correspondence between data and column voltage is switched, binary zero is represented by V _col0 , and the row select pulse is at V _selF1 level. Using this technique, the overall polarity of the voltage applied to the display array is alternated with each frame. This is particularly useful for MEMS based displays because it allows compensation of any DC level charge buildup when only a single polarity voltage is applied. Buildup of charge in the structure can significantly offset the electro-optic curve of the IMod or other MEMS device.

Color display method

Because IMod is a multifunctional device with various potential optical responses, it allows many different color display schemes to have different attributes. One possible approach takes advantage of the fact that there is a binary IMod design that can achieve color and monochrome states in the same IMod. This ability can be used to achieve a color scheme that can be described as "base + pigment". This term is used because this method is similar to the way the paint color is created by adding a pigment to the white base to achieve the desired color. Using this method, by controlling the amount and amount of pigment added to the base, certain paints can achieve any color in the spectrum, and can achieve any saturation level. The same can be said for displays that include colored pixels and monochrome pixels.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the pixel 400 includes five subpixel elements 402, 404, 406, 408, each of which may reflect red, green, blue, and white, respectively. All subpixels may be black. Control of the brightness of each subpixel may be performed using pulse width modulation in connection with the technique disclosed in US Pat. No. 5,835,255. With the relative subpixel size properly selected, this produces a pixel in which a very large degree of control affects brightness and saturation. For example, by minimizing the overall brightness of the white subpixel, a color with high saturation can be achieved. Conversely, by minimizing the brightness of the color subpixels, a bright black and white mode can be achieved. It is obvious that all changes can be made to these.

Color user control

In view of resolution, gray scale depth, and refresh rate, the aforementioned color schemes, such as the inherent characteristics of IMod based displays, provide flexibility in display performance. In a given range, it is useful to give a user a product that includes such display controls for general features. Alternatively, it may be desirable for the display to be automatically applied to other viewing needs.

For example, a user may want to use the product in white and black modes when viewing only some context, text. However, in other situations, the user may want to see a high quality color still picture, or another mode to watch live video. Each of these modes is potential within the scope of a given IMod display configuration, while certain properties require a tradeoff. Tradeoffs include the need for a low refresh rate when high resolution images are required, and the ability to achieve high gray scale lengths when only black and white is needed.

To give this kind of demanding flexibility to the user, the controller hardware can be reconfigured to some extent. The tradeoff is the result of the fact that any display has a certain amount of bandwidth only, and is basically limited by the response time of the pixel element to determine the amount of information that can be displayed at a given time.

A display structure that can provide this flexibility is shown in FIG. 4B. In the block diagram, controller logic 412 is implemented using various IC technologies, including programmable logic devices (PLAs) and field programmable logic devices (FPGAs), to allow components to be changed or exchanged after leaving the factory. do. Such devices, typically used for special applications such as digital signal processing or image compression, may provide high performance needs for such processing and may provide flexibility during the design phase of products containing such devices.

Controller 412 provides signals and data to driver electronics 414 and 416 for addressing display 418. Conventional controllers are based on ICs or application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and can be effectively "programmed" by their design at the time of manufacture. In this case, the term program means an internal chip layout comprising a plurality of basic components and higher level logic components (logic gates and logic modules or assemblies of gates). Using a field programmable device, such as a PLC or FPGA, different display configurations are loaded into an application or "hardapp" form into a display controller component in memory or components 410 such as conventional microprocessors and memory. Can be. The memory can be in the form of EEPROMS or other reprogrammable storage devices, and if the microprocessor is not performed by a processor that is involved in the functionality of a typical product, the function will cause the hard app to load from memory into the FPGA. It can be in the form of a simple microcontroller. This method is preferred because of the relatively simple circuitry, it is possible to achieve a wide variety of different display performance configurations and mixed display scan rates along the potential to combine them.

For example, a portion of the screen may operate as a low resolution text entry area, while another portion provides a high quality representation of incoming email. This is done within the full bandwidth boundary of the display by varying the refresh rate and number (#) of scans for different segments of the display. Low resolution text areas can be scanned quickly and only once or twice, corresponding to one or two bits of gray scale depth. The high indication email area can be scanned 3 times or 5 times quickly and corresponding to 3 or 5 bits of grayscale.

Configurable electronics

This idea can be generated to include not only the functionality of the display controller but also the functionality of all products. 4C shows the configuration of a typical portable electronic product 418 having a programmable logic device or device at its center. In various display-oriented personal electronic products, such as PDAs and electronic organizations, the central processor is a variant of the RISC processor that uses reduced instruction settings. RISC processors have more effective CPU versions that power most personal computers, but they are still a general purpose processor that consumes a lot of energy performing repetitive tasks to retrieve instructions from memory.

In personal computers, power consumption is not a problem, and users generally want to run a large number of complex software applications. The opposite is true for general display centric / personal electronics. They require low power consumption and require a relatively small number of relatively simple programs. This approach facilitates running specific purpose programs that may include handwriting / call recognition among web browsers, calendar functions, drawing programs, phone / address databases, and others, depending on the hand app. When a particular mode of function, for example a program, is requested by the user, the central processor is recognized by the appropriate handapp and the user interacts with the product. Thus, a variant of the FPGA, a handapp processor, has a handapp (ie a program) represented by internal logic and connections that are re-arranged and re-wired each time a new handapp is loaded. Many suppliers of these components also provide application development systems that allow a specialized programming language (hardware description language) to be reduced to the logical representation that forms the appropriate processor. In addition, various efforts have been made to simplify the processor and reduce higher level programming languages to this format. One method for realizing such a processor is described in Kouichi Nagami et al. 1998 paper, Proc. IEEE Workshop on FPGA-based Costom Computing Machines, "Plastic Cell Architecture: Towards Reconfigurable Computing for General-Purpose".

Referring again to FIG. 4C, a hardapp processor 420 is depicted in the center of a collection of peripherals and I / O devices that are not used, modified, or approved based on the characteristics and capabilities of the currently loaded hard app. have. The hard app can be pulled from the memory 422 present in the product, or via an RF or IR interface 424 that can pull the hard app from the Internet, cellular network, or other electronic device along with content for a particular hard app application. Can be loaded from an external source. Other examples of hard apps include speech recognition or call synthesis algorithms for audio interface 432, handwriting recognition for pen input 426, and image compression and processing modes for image input device 430. These products can perform enormous functions by key components, key user interface displays and recognizable central processors. The total power consumption of these devices can be in the tens of milliwatts compared to the hundreds of milliwatts consumed by conventional products.

Decoupling Electromechanical Aspects from Optical Aspects

US patent application Ser. No. 08 / 769,947 dated Dec. 19, 1996 and US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 056,975 dated April 4, 1998 are incorporated herein by reference, which decouples the electromechanical performance of IMod from its optical performance. Disclosed is an IMod design aiming at the purpose. Another way this can be done is shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. This design uses electromagnetic force to change the shape of the interference cavity. Electrode 502 is fabricated on substrate 500 and is electrically separated from membrane / mirror 506 by insulating film 504. The electrode 502 functions only as an electrode and not as a mirror.

An optical cavity 505 is formed between the membrane / mirror 506 and the second mirror 508. The support for the second mirror 508 is provided with a transparent superstructure 510 that can be a thickened organic material such as SU-8, polyimide, inorganic material. If no voltage is applied, the membrane / mirror 506 maintains the particular position shown in FIG. 5A as compared to the second mirror 508 as determined by the thickness of the sacrificial layer deposited at the time of manufacture. For operating voltages of about 4 V, a thickness of several thousand kilowatts is appropriate. If the second mirror consists of a mirror / membrane made of a suitable material such as chromium and a reflective material such as aluminum, the structure will reflect light 511 of a particular frequency that can be perceived by the viewer. In particular, if the chromium is thin enough to be translucent to about 40 GPa and thick enough to be more than 500 GPa to make aluminum opaque, the structure can have a wide variety of optical responses. 5C and 5D show examples of black and white responses and color responses, respectively, both determined by the cavity length and the thickness of the composition layer.

5B shows the result of the voltage applied between the primary electrode 502 and the membrane mirror 506. The membrane / mirror is displaced vertically, changing the length of the optical cavity and the IMod optical properties. FIG. 5C shows the kind of reflective optical response that is possible in two states, representing the black state 521 when both the device is in operation and the white state 523 when the device is not in operation. 5D shows the optical response with color peaks 525, 527, 529 corresponding to blue, green, and red colors, respectively. Thus, the electromechanical operation of the device can be controlled independently of the optical operation. The material and configuration of the first electrode which affects the electromechanical can be selected independently of the material comprising the second mirror since they do not play a role in the optical performance of the IMod. Designs can be made using surface micromachining processors and techniques, such as those disclosed in US Pat. No. 08 / 688,710, filed Jul. 31, 1996, and incorporated herein by reference.

As another example, as shown in FIG. 6A, the IMod 606 support structure can be positioned to be hidden by the membrane / mirror 608. In this way, since the observer sees only the minimum space between the combined IMods and the area covered by the membrane / mirror, the amount of inactive area is effectively reduced. This differs from the structure of FIG. 5A where the membrane support constitutes inactive and inactive regions in terms of color and is visible. 6B shows the same structure in the operating state.

7A illustrates another geometric configuration used for the IMod structure. This design is identical to that shown in US Pat. No. 5,638,084. The design relied on an opaque plastic membrane that isotropically stressed to remain in the curled state. The application of voltage flattens the membrane to provide a MEMS-based light shutter.

The functionality of the device can be improved by making it interfere. The thin film stack 704 disclosed in US patent application Ser. No. 08 / 688,710, filed Jul. 31, 1996, incorporated herein by reference, shows the IMod change in FIG. 7A, which consists of an insulator / conductor / insulator stack.

Voltage application between the aluminum membrane 702 and the stack 704 causes the membrane 702 to be positioned flat relative to the stack. In manufacturing, aluminum 702 may comprise other reflective metals (silver, copper, nickel), or an insulator or organic material topped by a reflective metal, and may be used in wet etching or gas phase release techniques. By being deposited on the thin sacrificial layer. The aluminum membrane 702 is further stabilized mechanically in the substrate by the support tabs 716 deposited directly on the optical stack 704. As a result, the light incident on the region where the tabs and the stack overlap is absorbed so as to be a region that does not operate mechanically and that does not operate optically. This technique eliminates the need for separate black masks in this and IMod designs.

Incident light 706 is light 708 that is either completely absorbed or of a particular frequency, reflected according to the spacing of the layers of the stack. The optical action is the same as the inductive absorber IMod disclosed in US patent application Ser. No. 08 / 688,710, filed Jul. 31, 1996 and incorporated herein by reference.

7B shows the device configuration in which no voltage is applied. Residual stress in the membrane induces tight curl up into the wound coil. Residual stress can be imparted by depositing a thin film layer 718 of material on the membrane top with very high residual tensile stress. Chromium is one example of achieving high stresses with film thicknesses as low as hundreds of microwatts. Since the membrane no longer interferes with this path, light beam 706 passes through stack 704 and intersects with plate 710. Plate 710 is in a high absorption or high reflection (of a particular color or white). For modulators used in reflective displays, the optical stack 704 is designed to reflect (if plate 710 is absorbent) or to absorb (if plate 710 is reflective) when the device is operated. do.

Rotational motion

As shown in FIG. 8A, the IMod type depends on the rotational motion. Using a process disclosed in US patent application Ser. No. 08 / 688,710, filed on July 31, 1996 and incorporated herein by reference, an electrode 802, which is an aluminum film having a thickness of about 1000 mm 3, is fabricated on substrate 800. do. There is a support shutter 812 on which a set of reflective films 813 have been deposited on a support post 808 and a rotating hinge 810. The support shutter may be an aluminum film of several thousand millimeters in thickness. X-Y dimensions can range from tens of microns to hundreds of microns. The film can be coherent and can be designed to reflect a particular color. A fixed interference stack in the form of an inductive absorber disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 08 / 688,710, filed on July 31, 1996 and incorporated herein by reference is sufficient. They may also include polymers infused with color pigments and may be aluminum or silver to provide broadband reflections. The electrode 802 and shutter 812 can be designed such that the application of a voltage between the two causes the shutter 812 to cause partial or full rotation about the axis of the hinge. Although all shutters for a given pixel are driven equally by the signal on the common bus electrode 804, only the shutter 818 is shown in rotation. If the hinge and electrode distance are designed such that the electrostatic attraction of the electrode overcomes the spring tension of the hinge at some point in rotation, this shutter can be represented in the form of electromechanical hysteresis. Thus, the shutter can have two electromechanically stable states.

In the transfer mode of operation, the shutter blocks or passes incident light. 8A shows a reflective mode in which incident light 822 is reflected back to the observer 820. In this mode, and in one state, the shutter reflects white light if it is metal, or a specific color or set of colors if coated with an interfering film or pigment. The thicknesses and colors shown for the interfering stacks are disclosed in US patent application Ser. No. 08 / 688,710, filed Jul. 31, 1996, incorporated herein by reference. In another state, when the opposite side of the shutter is coated with the absorbing film or films 722, the light is made to pass through or absorb the substrate 800. Such films may include other pigments into which the organic film is implanted, or inductive absorber stacks designed to absorb. Conversely, the shutter may, for example, have a high absorbance for black, and the opposite side of the substrate 800 may be coated with a high reflecting film 824 or to reflect color along the lines of the color reflecting film as described above. Dye or interference film may be optionally coated.

The addition of the auxiliary electrode 814, which provides additional torque to the shutter when charged with a potential to induce electrostatic attraction between the auxiliary electrode 814 and the shutter 812, will further improve the operation of the device. Can be. The auxiliary electrode 814 includes a combination of the conductor 812 and the support structure 816. This electrode may include a transparent conductor, such as ITO, which may be about 1000 mm 3 thick. All structures and bonded electrodes are processed, ie monolithically, from a material deposited on a single substrate, and thus are easily deposited and reliably operated due to good control over electrode gap space. For example, if such an electrode is mounted on an opposite substrate, the deviations of the surface of both the device substrate and the opposite substrate can add up to produce a deviation of several microns or more. Thus, the voltage required to affect a particular change in action can be changed to a few tens of volts or more. Monolithic structures accurately follow the substrate surface changes and make this variation very few.

Steps 1 to 7 of FIG. 8B show the manufacturing sequence for the rotation modulator. In step 1, the substrate 830 was coated with an electrode 832 and an insulator 834. Typical electrode and insulator materials are aluminum and silicon dioxide, each consisting of thousands of kilowatts. These are patterned in step 2. The sacrificial spacers 836 were deposited several microns thick with a material such as silicon, patterned in step 3, and coated with post / hinge / shutter material 838 in step 4. It may be an aluminum alloy or titanium / tungsten alloy of about 1000 mm thick. In step 5, material 838 was patterned to form bus electrode 844, support post 840, and shutter 842. In step 6, shutter reflector 846 was deposited and patterned. In step 7, the sacrificial spacers were etched to obtain complete structures. Step 7 also shows in detail the hinge comprising a support post 848, a torsion arm 850 and a shutter 852.

Switching element

For the binary device IMod, a small number of voltage levels are needed to address the display. The driver electronics do not need to generate the analog signals needed to achieve grayscale operation.

Thus, the electronic device can be implemented using other means such as US patent application Ser. No. 08 / 769,947, filed December 19, 1996, incorporated herein by reference. In particular, drive electronics and logic functions may be implemented using switch elements based on MEMS.

9A-9E illustrate the concept. 9A is a diagram of a basic switch building block having an input 900 having a connection with an output 904 by application of a control signal 902. 9B illustrates how a row driver is executed. The row driver for the above addressing scheme requires an output of three voltage levels. Application of the appropriate control signal to the row electrode causes one of the input voltage levels to be selected for output 903. The input voltages are V _col1 , V _col0 and V _bias corresponding to 906, 908 and 910 in the figure. Similarly, for the column driver shown in FIG. 9C, the appropriate control signal causes the selection of one or more input voltages for delivery to the output 920. The input voltages are VselF1, VselF0, and ground that correspond to 914, 916, and 918 in the figure. 9D illustrates how logic device 932 can be implemented using basic switching building blocks 934, 936, 938, and 940 in a NAND gate. All of these components can be configured and combined in a manner that allows for the fabrication of the display subsystem shown in FIG. 9E. The subsystem includes controller logic 926, row driver 924, column driver 928 and display array 930 and employs an addressing scheme as described above in FIG. 3.

The manufacture of switch elements, such as MEMS devices, makes it possible to manufacture an entire display system using a single process. The switch manufacturing process becomes a subprocess of the IMod manufacturing process and is shown in FIG. 10A.

Step 1 shows both a side view and a top view of the initial state. Arrow 1004 indicates the direction of looking at the side view. Substrate 1000 was deposited to be 2000 mm thick and had a sacrificial spacer 1002 patterned thereon. In step 2, the structural material was deposited and patterned into a few micron thick aluminum alloy to form a source beam 1010, a drain structure 1008 and a gate structure 1006. Hundreds of milliseconds of non-corrosive metals such as gold, iridium, or platinum may be plated onto the structural material at this point in order to maintain low contact resistance throughout the switch life. Notches 1012 were etched in the source beam 1010 so that the movement of the beam in the plane was parallel to that of the substrate. The directions facing the drawings in steps 3 and 4 are different in the forward and upward directions. Arrow 1016 indicates the direction seen from the front side. In step 3, the sacrificial material was etched to free the source beam 1010 to move without operation.

When a voltage is applied between the source beam and the gate structure, the source beam 1010 is reflected toward the gate 1006 until it is in contact with the drain 1008, thereby achieving an electrical contact between the source and the drain. The mode of operation allows the manufacturing process to be compatible with the main IMod manufacturing process, parallel to the surface of the substrate. In addition, this process requires fewer steps than those used to fabricate a switch that operates in a direction perpendicular to the substrate surface.

10B and 10C show two different designs for planar MEM switches. The switch in FIG. 10B differs in that the switch beam 1028 is provided to provide contact between the drain 1024 and the source 1026. In the switch of FIG. 10A, the current that must flow through the source beam to the drain complicates the circuit design by affecting the switching threshold. This is not the case with the switch 1020. The switch of FIG. 10C shows a further improvement. In this case, the insulator 1040 electrically separates the switch beam 1042 from the connection beam 1038. This insulator can be a material, such as SiO ₂ , which can be positioned and patterned using conventional techniques. The use of such a switch eliminates the need to electrically isolate the switch drive voltage from the logic signal in a circuit having such a switch.

Multidimensional Photonic Structure

In general, IMod features an element that has optical properties and is movable by itself or by means of operation with respect to other electrical, mechanical or optical elements.

The assembly of thin films to create an interference stack is a subset of a larger class of structures called multidimensional photonic structures. Broadly, photonic structures are defined as having the ability to change the transmission of electromagnetic waves due to the shape and combined change in refractive index of the structure. Such structures have a dimensional aspect because they preferentially interact with light along one or more axes. Multidimensional structures were also called PBG or Photonic Crystal. The text by John D. Joannopoulos et al., "Photonic Crystals," describes periodic photonic structures.

One-dimensional PBG can occur in thin film stacks. By way of example, FIG. 16 shows the preparation and final product of IMod in the form of an insulator Fabry-Perot filter. The thin film stacks 1614 and 1618 were fabricated on the substrate to form an IMod structure comprising alternating layers of silicon and silicon dioxide, each quarter wave thick, and comprising a central cavity 1616. In general, the stack is continuous in the X and Y directions, but is periodic in the optical conception of the Z direction due to variations in the refractive index of the material as the layers with lengths and low refractive indices intersect. This structure can be considered one-dimensional because the influence of periodicity is maximized for wave propagation along one axis in the case of the Z-axis.

11A and 11B show two representations of a two-dimensional photonic structure. In FIG. 11A, a microring resonator 1102 can be prepared from one of a large number of known materials, tantalum phenoxide and silicon dioxide, for example by known techniques. For devices optimized for wavelengths in the range of 1.55 μm, typical dimensions are w = 1.5 μm, h = 1.0 μm, and r = 10 μm.

The fabricated structure (glass is a possibility of one of many others) on the substrate 1100 is a circular waveguide whose refractive index and dimensions (w, r, h) determine the frequency and mode of light transmitted therein. . Such a resonator, if properly designed, can act as a frequency selective filter for broadband radiation coupled thereto. In this case, radiation is generally transmitted in the XY plane as indicated by azimuth 1110. The one-dimensional analog of the device may be a Fabry-Perot filter made using a single layer mirror. The device exhibits high order optical periodicity due to the single layer "boundary" (ie mirror); However, they can be considered photonic structures in a broad sense.

A more general PBG is shown in FIG. 11B. Columnar array 1106 exhibits a periodic variation in refractive index in both the X and Y directions. Electromagnetic radiation delivered through this medium is most significantly affected when delivered in the XY plane, indicated by azimuth code 1103.

Due to the periodic nature, the array of FIG. 11B shares the characteristics by the one-dimensional thin film stack, except for the higher dimensionality. This array is periodic in view of the change in refractive index along some axis through the array in the XY plane between the index of refraction of the column material and the surrounding material, which is usually air. Designing an appropriate array using the same principle deviations applied to the thin film stack design enables the manufacture of a wide range of optical responses (mirrors, bandpass filters, edge filters, etc.) that affect radiation traveling in the XY plane. . The array 1106 shown in FIG. 11B includes unity or defects 1108 in the form of columns that differ in dimension and / or refractive index. For example, the diameter of this column can be proportionally larger or smaller than the remaining columns (which can be units of 1/4 wavelength in diameter) or can be made of different materials (if possible Air to silicon oxide). The overall size of the array is determined by the size of the optical system and components that need to be manipulated. Defects can also occur in the form (rows) in which the column or columns are absent depending on the desired action. This structure resembles the insulator Fabry-Perot filter of FIG. 16 but functions only in two dimensions. In this case, the defect is similar to the cavity 1616. The rest of the columns will be similar close to the two-dimensional stack.

Suitable dimensions of the structure of FIG. 11B are represented by sx spaced columns x, sy spaced columns y (both can be considered lattice constants), column diameter d, and array height h. Like a quarter wave stack, one-dimensional apparatus, column diameter and spacing can be in units of quarter waves. The height h is determined to be a given mode of transmission with at least 1/2 wavelength used for single mode transmission. Equations relating to the size of structures and their effects on light are known and are recorded in the text "Photonic Crystals" by John D. Joannopoulos et al.

In addition, structures of this kind can be fabricated using the same materials and techniques used to fabricate resonators 1102. For example, a silicon monolayer can be deposited on a glass substrate and patterned using conventional techniques, and etched using reactive ion etching to create a high aspect ratio column. For a wavelength of 1.55 μm, the diameter and spacing of the columns can be in units of 0.5 μm and 1 μm, respectively.

In addition, the photonic structure can direct radiation under limited form constraints. Thus, they are very useful in applications where it is desirable to redirect and / or select a band of a particular frequency or light frequency when the dimensional constraints are very tight. The waveguide channeling the light transmitted in the XY plane can be manufactured to allow the light to rotate 90 degrees in a space less than the wavelength of the light. This can be accomplished, for example, by creating column defects in the form of linear rows that can act as waveguides.

The three-dimensional structure is shown in FIG. The three-dimensional periodic structure 1202 operates with radiation transmitted in the XY, YZ, and XZ planes. Various optical responses can be made by appropriate design of the structure and selection of the constituent material. The same design rules apply, but here they apply in three dimensions. Defects are formed in the form of points, lines, or regions, which points and lines differ in size and / or refractive index from the surrounding medium. In FIG. 12, defect 1204 is a single point device, but may be a linear or a combination of linear and point devices or regions. For example, a "linear" or "S" array of point defects can be fabricated to act as a tightly confined waveguide for light passing along and passing through any three-dimensional path through the PBG. Generally, defects may be located internally, but appear on a surface for illustrative purposes. Appropriate dimensions of this structure are all indicated in the figures. The spacing and dimensions of the material of the PBG are completely application dependent, but the preferred design rules and equations also apply.

Three-dimensional PBG is more complicated to manufacture. Conventional means for manufacturing one- or two-dimensional features, when applied to three dimensions, may include various applications of deposition, pattern, and etching cycles to achieve a third dimension in the structure. have. Manufacturing techniques for forming periodic three-dimensional structures produce holographic, column array or spherical structures upon deposition of the material, in which the photosensitive material is exposed to standing waves and repeats the waves in the form of refractive index variations at zero itself. Organic or self-assembled materials that are self-organized according to the inherent adhesion and orientation properties of a particular co-polymeric material, to a controlled structure that, once solidified, organizes the structure and can be removed by decomposition or high temperature. Ceramic methods, combinations of these methods, and others, which may include coupling of a supply of dimensionally circular structures.

Self-assembly techniques of interpolymers are of particular interest because they are all low temperature and do not require minimal photolithography or photolithography. In general, this technique involves the decomposition of polymers such as polyphenylquinoine-block-polystyrene (PPQmPSn) into solvents such as carbon disulfide. After diffusion of the solution on the substrate and evaporation of the solvent, a closed packed hexagonal array of air filled polymeric spheres is formed. The process can be repeated several times to form multi-layers, and the cycle of the array may be controlled by adjusting the number of repeat units of the components m and n of the polymer. The introduction of nanometer-sized colloids includes semiconductors that can have the effect of increasing the refractive index of metals, oxides, or polymers and reducing the period of the array.

Defects may be introduced through direct manipulation of sub-micron materials using tools such as focused ion beams or atomic force microscopy. The former may be used to remove or add material in very small selection areas or to change the optical properties of the material. Material removal occurs when an active particle beam, such as used by a tool of a concentrated ion beam, sputters material into its path. Material addition occurs when the concentrated ion beam passes through a volatile metal comprising a gas such as tungsten hexafluoride (for tungsten conductors) or silicon tetrafluoride (for insulating silicon dioxide). The gas is decomposed and the components are deposited where the beam contacts the substrate. Atomic force microscopy may be used to move materials on a molecular scale.

Another method involves the use of a technique called microelectrodeposition, which is described in detail in US Pat. No. 5,641,391. In this method, a single micro electrode can be used to define three-dimensional features of sub-micron resolution using various materials and substrates. Metal “defects” deposited in this manner can be continuously oxidized to form dielectric defects around a PBG array that can be fabricated using the techniques described above.

In addition, the presence of surface features in the form of a pattern of another material on the substrate from which the PBG is made may serve as a template for forming defects in the PBG during its formation. In particular, it is suitable for PBG processes that are sensitive to substrate conditions, which are originally self-assembly methods. Such features may promote or inhibit the growth of PBG in very local areas around the seed depending on the specific characteristics of the process. In this manner, a pattern of defect “seeds” may be formed, and then PBGs may be formed with defects formed within during the PBG formation process.

Thus, a class of devices known as IMods may be further extended by including a larger class of multidimensional photonic structures in the modulator itself. At this time, any kind of photonic structure, which is essentially a static device, may be made dynamic by changing its geometry and / or changing its analog to another structure. Similarly, a micromechanical Fabry-Perot filter (shown in FIG. 16) with two mirrors, each having a one-dimensional photonic structure, has a power failure of the cavity width. It can also be tuned to change miraculously.

13 shows two examples of an IMod design including two-dimensional PBGs. In FIG. 13A, a cutaway view shows a self-supporting membrane 1304 fabricated with a microring resonator 1306 mounted on a side facing the substrate. The waveguides 1301 and 1302 in most substrates 1303 are planar and parallel, and can be manufactured using known techniques. In FIG. 13A, the IMod is shown in an undriven state with a finite air gap (number) between the microring and the substrate. The microrings are fabricated so that their positions overlap and align with paired waveguides under the substrate. The dimensions of the microrings are the same as in the above-described embodiment. Cross section 1305 represents the dimensions of the waveguide, which may be w = 1 um, h = 0.5 um, and t = 100 nm. In the undriven state, light 1308 propagates without disturbing the waveguide 1302, and the output beam 1310 is spectrally identical to the input 1308.

Driving the IMod to bring the microring in close contact with the substrate and waveguide changes the optical behavior of the device. At this time, the light propagating to the waveguide 1302 may be coupled to the microring by a meaningless phenomenon. If the size is appropriate, the microring acts as an optical resonator that couples and injects the selected frequency from the waveguide 1302 into the waveguide 1301. This is shown in FIG. 13B showing the beam 1312 propagating in a direction opposite to the direction of light 1308. Such a device may be used as a frequency selector switch that selects a particular wavelength from the waveguide by the application of voltage or another drive means required to bring the structure into close contact with the lower waveguide. Static versions of the geometry are described in detail in B.E.Little et al., "Vertically Coupled Microring Resonator Channel Dropping Filter", IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, vol. 11, no.2, 1999.

Another embodiment is shown in FIG. 13C. In this case, the resonators 1314 and the pair of waveguides 1332 and 1330 are manufactured in the form of columnar PBG on the substrate. PBG is a uniform array of columns with a waveguide defined by removing two rows (one for each waveguide) and a resonator defined by removing two columns. Top view 1333 provides a more detailed configuration of waveguides 1330 and 1332 and resonator 1314. The dimensions depend on the wavelength of interest and the material used. If the wavelength is 1.55 um, the diameter and spacing of the columns may be about 0.5 um and 1 um, respectively. The height, h, determines the propagation modes supported, and if only a single mode propagates, it should be slightly larger than half the wavelength.

On the inner surface of the membrane 1315, two insulated columns 1311 are fabricated, which are face down and have the same dimensions and are the same (or optically the same) material as the columns on the substrate. The resonators and columns are designed to complement each other, where there is no corresponding column in the resonator where the columns on the membrane are located.

When the IMod is in the undriven state, there is a finite vertical air gap 1312 that is at least a few hundred nanometers between the PBG and the membrane, so no optical interaction occurs. The absence of a column in the resonator couples between the waveguides 1330 and 1332 and acts like a defect. In this state, the device acts as shown in FIG. 13B, where the selected frequency of light propagating along the waveguide is introduced into the waveguide 1332 and propagates in the opposite direction in the form of light 1329.

However, driving IMod into contact with the PBG places the columns in a resonator that changes its behavior. The defect of the resonator is eliminated by the placement of the membrane column. The device in this state acts as shown in FIG. 13A with light 1328 propagating without interference.

Static versions of these geometries are described in H.A.Haus' s paper, "Channel drop filters in photonic crystals", Optics Express, vol. 3, no. 1, 1998.

Optical switch

In FIG. 14A, a device based on an inductive absorber is suspended on a stack of material 1402 made of a combination of a metal and an oxide and patterned on a transparent substrate of about tens to hundreds of microns square of self-supporting aluminum membrane. 1400. Reference herein, membranes used in inductive absorbers disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 08 / 688,710, filed July 31, 1996, may serve this purpose. The film on the substrate may also be provided with a transparent conductor such as ITO. The structure may include a lossy metal film such as molybdenum or tungsten several hundred angstroms thick on its underside.

In the undriven state, the device configures the materials to reflect in a particular wavelength region but absorb well when contacting the membrane. Side view 1410 shows a diagram of an apparatus for irradiating the side of a substrate. Light beam 1408 propagates at an angle through the substrate and is incident on IMod 1406, which is shown in an undriven state. Assuming that the optical frequency corresponds to the reflection area of the IMod in the undriven state, the light is reflected and propagated at an excitation angle. Side view 1414 shows the same IMod in the driven state. Since the device is absorbing well at this time, the incident light is no longer reflected but is absorbed by the material in the stack of IMod.

Thus, in this configuration, IMod may act as an optical switch for light propagating in the manufactured substrate. The substrate is well polished and manufactured to form a surface that is very parallel (up to one tenth of the wavelength of interest) and several times thicker (at least several hundred microns) than the wavelength of light. This allows the substrate to act as a substrate / waveguide because light beams, on average, propagate in a direction parallel to the substrate but undergoing multiple reflections from one surface to another. Light waves in such structures are often referred to as substrate guided waves.

14B illustrates a variation on this subject. The membrane 1420 is no longer rectangular but is patterned to taper towards one end. The mechanical spring constant of the structure remains constant along this length, but the electrode area is reduced. Thus, the amount of force that can be applied electrostatically is reduced at the narrower end of the taper. If an increasing voltage is applied, the membrane first begins to operate at the wider end, and the operation proceeds along arrow 1428 as the voltage increases.

In incident light, IMod acts as an absorption region depending on the applied voltage value. Side view 1434 illustrates the effect on a substrate propagating a beam when no voltage is applied. The corresponding reflective area 1429, representing IMod from the perspective of the incident beam, represents a “footprint” 1431 of the beam superimposed on the reflective area. Because the entire area 1429 is non-absorbing, the beam 1430 is reflected from the IMod 1428 in the form of a beam 1432 (with minimal loss).

In side view 1436, a temporary voltage value is applied, and the reflected beam 1440 is attenuated to some extent at this time because the reflective region shown at 1437 is partially absorbed. Reference numerals 1438 and 1429 show the result of the overall operation and complete attenuation of the beam.

Thus, using a tapered geometry, a variable optical attenuator can be generated, the response of which is directly related to the applied voltage value.

Another kind of optical switch is shown in FIG. 15A. The support frame 1500 is made from a metal, such as aluminum, thousands of Angstroms thick, in a manner electrically connected to the mirror 1502. The mirror 1502 resides on a transparent optical standoff 1501 that is adhered to the support 1500. The mirror 1502 may include a combination of metal, oxide, and semiconductor films, or a single metal film.

The standoff is made from a material having a refractive index equal to or higher than that of the substrate. This may be a polymer or SiO ₂ (same refractive index), in which the refractive index may vary. Standoffs are made to support the mirror at an angle of 45 degrees. Fabrication of standoffs can be accomplished using a technique known as analog lithography, in which the features rely on photomasks that can vary continuously in terms of their optical density. By appropriate modification of this density for a particular feature, such a mask can be used to form a three dimensional shape in the exposed photoresist. The shape can then be transformed into another material through reactive ion etching. The entire assembly floats on a conductor 1503 that is patterned to provide an unobstructed "window" 1505 to the underlying substrate 1504. That is, most of the conductors 1503 are etched so that the window 1505 made of ordinary glass is exposed. Switches such as other IMods can be operated to contact the entire assembly with the substrate / waveguide. Side view 1512 illustrates optical operation. The beam 1510 propagates within the substrate at an angle of 45 degrees from the normal to prevent propagation beyond the boundary of the substrate. This is because 45 degrees is above an angle known as the critical angle that causes the beam to be reflected with minimal or no loss at the interface 1519 between the substrate and the outer medium by the principle of total internal reflection (TIR).

The principle of TIR relies on Snell's law, but the basic requirement is that the media outside the substrate should have a smaller refractive index than the substrate. In side view 1512, the device is shown with a switch 1506 in an undriven state and a beam 1510 propagating in an unobstructed manner. As shown in side view 1514, when the switch 1506 operates in contact with the substrate, the path of the beam is changed. Since the standoff has a refractive index that is greater than or equal to the substrate, the beam no longer experiences TIR at the interface. The beam propagates from the substrate to the engineering standoff reflected by the mirror. The mirror is tilted 45 degrees, where the reflected beam moves at an angle normal to the substrate plane. Thus, since it no longer meets the criteria of TIR, light may propagate through the substrate interface and may be captured by a fiber coupler 1520 mounted on the opposite side of the substrate / waveguide. . Similar concepts are described in X. Zhou et al., "Waveguide Panel Display Using Electromechanical Spatial Modulators", SID Digest, vol. XXIX, 1998. This particular device is designed for emissive display applications. The mirror may also be implemented in the form of a reflecting grating that may be etched into the surface of the standoff using conventional patterning techniques. However, this method exhibits loss and wavelength dependence due to multiple diffraction orders that do not appear in thin film mirrors. In addition, another optical structure may be substituted for the mirror with respective properties and disadvantages. These can be classified into refractive, reflective, and diffractive and include micro-lenses (transmissive and reflective), concave mirrors or convex mirrors, diffractive optical elements, holographic optical elements, prisms, and micro-fabrication techniques. It may include other types of optical elements that can be generated using. In the case of using another optical element, the angles given to standoffs and optics do not necessarily depend on the properties of the micro-optics.

This variant of IMod acts as a de-coupling switch for light. If the mirror is designed correctly, broadband radiation or a specific frequency can be coupled from the substrate / waveguide as intended. Side view 1526 illustrates a more sophisticated implementation in which an additional fixed mirror tilted at 45 degrees is fabricated on the side of the substrate opposite the decoupling switch. This mirror differs from the switch in that it cannot be operated. By careful selection of the mirror angles for the two structures, light 1522 that is effectively decoupled from the substrate by the switch 1506 may be re-coupled to the substrate by the re-coupling mirror 1528. However, by making the re-coupling mirror in different directions in the XY plane, the mirror combination may be used to redirect light in any new direction in the substrate / waveguide. The combination of these two structures is also called a directional switch. The re-coupling mirror may also be used to couple any light propagating to the substrate in the normal direction of the surface.

15B illustrates one implementation of an array of directional switches. Looking down over substrate 1535, linear array 1536 is an array of fiber couplers that direct light to the substrate at a normal angle with respect to the XY plane. An array of re-coupling mirrors (not shown) is positioned opposite to the fiber coupler array to couple light to the substrate parallel to the beam 1530. On the surface of the substrate 1535, one array of directional switches 1153 is manufactured. The switches are positioned such that light coupled to the substrate from either of the input fiber coupler 1536 may be directed to either of the output fiber coupler 1532. In this way, the apparatus may operate as an N × N optical switch that can switch any one of any number of different inputs to any one of any number of different outputs.

Tunable filter

Referring again to FIG. 16, IMod is shown in the form of a tunable Fabry-Perot filter. In this case, a conducting contact pad 1602 is deposited and patterned together with the insulating mirrors 1604 and 1608 and the sacrificial layer 1606. This may be made of a silicon film with a thickness of a multiple of 1/2 wavelength. The mirrors may include a layer of materials, TiO 2 (high refractive index) and SiO 2 (low refractive index), which have two embodiments alternating a stack of materials, high refractive index and low refractive index, and one of the layers which may be air. Insulating layer 1610 is deposited and patterned such that second contact pad 1612 contacts only mirror 1608. Mirror 1608 is successively patterned leaving a mirror " island " 1614, which is connected by a support 1615. The lateral dimension of the island is mainly determined by the size of the interacting light beams. Typically, this is about tens to hundreds of microns. The sacrificial layer 1606 is only partially etched chemically, but leaves a sufficient size standoff of about several tens of microns square to provide mechanical stability. If the top layer of the mirror 1608 and the bottom layer of the mirror 1604 are thinly doped for conduction, the application of the voltage between the contact pads 1602 and 1612 allows the mirror islands to be replaced. Thus, the optical response of the structure may be tuned.

17A illustrates one application of such a tunable filter. On the top surface of the substrate 1714 is a tunable filter 1704, a mirror 1716, and an anti-reflection coating 1712. In addition, mirror 1917 is fabricated on the bottom surface of the substrate, for example, from a metal, such as gold, at least 10 nm thick. The optical superstructure 1706 is mounted on the top surface of the substrate, the inner surface of which has a reflectance of at least 95%, for example by addition of a reflecting gold film, and also tilted Support the true mirror 1710. In this apparatus, the light beam 1702 propagates within the substrate at an angle greater than the critical angle of approximately 41 degrees with respect to the air medium and the glass substrate. Thus, the mirror 1716 is required to maintain the constraints within the range of the substrate / waveguide. This configuration allows more flexibility in the selection of the angles at which light propagates.

The remaining light 1709 reflects but the beam 1702 enters a Fabry-Perot 1704 that transmits light 1708 at a particular frequency. The transmission frequency reflects from the reflective superstructure 1706 and enters the superstructure 1706 and is reflected back to the inclined mirror 1710 by the mirror 1716. The mirror 1710 is inclined so that light is directed towards the antireflective coating 1712 at a normal angle to the substrate and passes through and through the external medium. Thus, in general, the device operates as a wavelength selective filter.

The superstructure may be manufactured using a number of techniques. One includes bulk micromachining of silicon slabs to form cavities of precise depth, such as, for example, at least several hundred microns and thickness, such as a substrate. The inclined mirror is produced after cavity etching, and the entire assembly is bonded to the glass substrate, for example using any of a number of silicon / glass adhesion techniques.

17B is a more sophisticated version. In this embodiment, a second tunable filter 1739 has been added to provide additional frequency select channels. That is, two separate frequencies may be selected independently. In addition, a detector 1738 has been added to allow a higher degree of integration functionality.

17C includes an integrated circuit. Light beam 1750 is coupled to substrate 1770 and is incident on tunable filter 1702. This filter differs from the filter of FIGS. 17A and 17B in that it includes a re-coupling mirror 1756 fabricated on the surface of the filter's movable mirror. The angle of the mirror causes the frequency selected by filter 1552 to be coupled directly to the substrate at a normal angle in the form of light beam 1758. The remaining frequencies included in the light beam 1750 propagate until they encounter the tilted re-coupling mirror 1760 to provide a surface perpendicular to the propagating beam 1756. Thus, the beam travels back from the device, a path that may be used by other devices that are optically connected. Light beam 1758 is incident on an IC 1764 that can detect and decode information within the beam. This IC may be in the form of an FPGA or other silicon, silicon / germanium, or gallium arsenide device based integrated circuit that may benefit from being directly coupled to information containing light. For example, high bandwidth optical wiring may be formed between the ICs 1764 and 1762 due to the bidirectional optical path 1772. This is formed by the combination of the mirror 1766 and the re-coupling mirror 1768. When the ICs include components such as vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELS) or light emitting diodes (LEDs), light can be emitted by the respective ICs. Light can be detected by any number of optically sensitive components, the properties of which depend on the semiconductor technology used to manufacture the IC. In addition, light incident on the IC may be modulated by IMods fabricated on the IC surface exposed to the substrate propagating light.

Optical Mixer Using Substrate Waveguide

18A and 18B are diagrams of two-channel optical mixers implemented using the TIR version of the substrate / waveguide. 18A shows a schematic of the device. Light comprising multiple wavelengths has two specific wavelengths 1801 and 1803 that are directed and separated towards two independent variable attenuators 1805. The wavelengths are then output to several channels 1807 and an optical stop 1813.

18B illustrates one implementation. Input light is directed to the device through the fiber coupler 1800, through the antireflective coating 1802, and coupled to the substrate using the re-coupling mirror 1806. The re-coupling mirror directs the light to a tunable filter 1808 that separates it into a frequency λ 1 (beam 1815), with all unselected frequencies remaining the remainder of the beam 1819 propagating additional downstream through the TIR. Directing a second tunable filter 1809 that separates the frequencies with frequency λ2 (beam 1817). Following the path of the beam 1815 transmitted by the tunable filter 1808, the light passes through the AR coating and is redirected through the mirror 1810 to the substrate waveguide and re-coupled to the substrate. The re-coupling mirror 1811 directs the beam 1815 to face the attenuator 1812, which continues to follow a path parallel to the beam 1817 selected by the second tunable filter 1809. These two beams are shifted in position by a beam repositioner 1816.

This structure produces the same results as a re-coupling mirror except that the mirror is parallel to the substrate surface. Since the mirror is suspended at a fixed distance on the substrate surface, the position of the point entering the opposite substrate interface is shifted to the right. This shift is directly determined by the height of the relocator. In addition, the beam 1819 containing the unselected wavelength is shifted by the re-locator 1818. Thus, all three beams are equally separated when they enter the array of decoupling switches 1820 and 1824. These are optionally provided to redirect the beam to one of the two optical combiners 1828 or to the detector / absorber 1830. Optical combiners may be manufactured using various techniques. One method is a polymeric film patterned in the form of a column having its top surface formed in a lens using reactive ion etching. An absorber / detector having a semiconductor device bonded to the substrate is provided to enable measurement of the output power of the mixer. Optical superstructure 1829 supports the external optical component and provides a hermetic package to the mixer.

The combination of planar IMods and substrate waveguides provides a class of optical devices that are easily fabricated and constructed, which devices reside in the waveguides and / or superstructures and affect light propagating between and within the waveguides and superstructures. Because it can, it is coupled to the outside world. Since all components are manufactured in a planar manner, scale savings can be achieved by bulk manufacturing over a large area, and different pieces can be easily and accurately aligned and glued. In addition, since all active components exhibit normal operation to the substrate, they are relatively simple to manufacture and drive compared to more sophisticated non-planar mirrors and beams. Active electronic components may be attached to a superstructure or substrate / waveguide to enhance functionality. Alternatively, the active devices may be manufactured as part of a superstructure, especially in the case of semiconductors such as silicon or gallium arsenide.

Printing Style Manufacturing Processes

Because they are planar and do not require semiconductor electrical properties, where many layers require specialized substrates, IMods and many other MEM structures use fabrication techniques similar to those of the printing industry. Typically, this kind of process is in the form of a continuous sheet of paper or plastic and includes a flexible “substrate”. Because they are referred to as web fed processes, they typically comprise a continuous roll of substrate material that is provided to a series of tools, each of which successively forms a full color graphical image. The substrate is optionally coated with ink to do so. Such processes are of interest because they can produce products at high speeds.

FIG. 19 is a diagram of a sequence applied to the manufacture of a single IMod, and to an enlarged scale, an array of IMods or other microelectromechanical structures. Web source 1900 is a roll of substrate material, such as transparent plastic. For this description, the depicted area 1902 on the section of material from that roll includes only one device. An embossing tool 1904 inscribes the pattern of subsidence with a plastic sheet. This can be obtained by the metal master having an appropriate pattern of protrusions etched onto the metal master.

The metal master is mounted on a drum that is pressed against the sheet at a pressure sufficient to deform the plastic to form a settlement. Reference numeral 1906 denotes this. Coater 1908 deposits thin layers of material using well known thin film deposition processes such as sputtering or deposition. Accordingly, the stack 1910 of four films includes oxides, metals, oxides, and sacrificial films. These materials correspond to the inductive absorber IMod design. Tool 1912 spreads, cures, and exposes photoresist to pattern these layers. Once the pattern is defined, film etching occurs in the tool 1914. Alternatively, patterning may be accomplished using a process known as laser ablation. In this case, the laser is scanned against the material in a manner synchronized with the moving substrate. The frequency and power of the laser allow the deposition of materials of interest to feature sizes such as microns. The frequency of the laser is tuned to interact only with the material on the substrate, not with the substrate itself. Since deposition occurs very quickly, the substrate is heated to a minimum.

In the example of this apparatus, all the films are etched in the same pattern. This is shown at 1918 and the photoresist is removed after application of the tool 1916. Tool 1920 is another deposition tool that deposits what will be the structural layer of the IMod. Aluminum is one candidate for this layer 1922. In addition, the material may include organic materials that exhibit minimal residual stress and may be deposited using various PVD and PECVD techniques. This layer uses tools 1924, 1926, and 1928, respectively, to continuously pattern, etch, and remove photoresist. Tool 1930 is used to etch the sacrificial layer. If the layer is silicon, this can be achieved using XeF2, a gaseous etchant used for that purpose. The result is a self-supporting membrane structure 1922 forming an IMod.

Packaging of the device thus produced is accomplished by adhering the flexible sheet 1933 to the top surface of the substrate sheet. This is also provided by a continuous roll 1936 coated with an airtight film such as metal using the coating tool 1934. The two sheets are glued using an adhesive tool 1937, thereby yielding a packaged device 1940.

Stress measurement

Residual stress is a factor in the design and manufacture of MEM structures. In other structures and IMods, where structural members are mechanically released during the manufacturing process, the residual stress determines the resulting geometric structure of the member.

IMods, such as interferometer devices, are sensitive to deformations in the resulting geometry of the movable membrane. The reflected color, or in the case of another design, the transmitted color is a direct function of the air gap spacing of the cavity. Thus, deformation at this distance along the length of the cavity can cause unacceptable deformation of the color. On the other hand, this property is a useful tool for determining the residual stress of the structure itself, since the deformation in color can be used to determine the degree of deformation in the membrane and its deformation. Knowing the deformation state of any material enables the determination of residual stresses in the material. Computer modeling programs and algorithms can use two-dimensional data about the deformation state to determine this. Thus, the IMod structure can provide a tool for this assessment.

20A and 20B illustrate embodiments of how IMod can be used in this manner. IMods (2000 and 2002) are shown in side schematic and bottom schematic (ie, looking through a substrate). They are in the form of double cantilever and single cantilever respectively. In this case, the structural material has no residual stress, and the two membranes do not show deformation. When viewed through a substrate, the devices exhibit a uniform color that is determined by the thickness of the spacer layer on which they are formed. IMods (2004 and 2006) are shown with a stress gradient that compresses more about the top than the bottom. Thus, the structural membrane exhibits deformation, and the bottom view shows the nature of the color change produced. For example, if color region 2016 is green, blue will appear because color region 2014 is closer to the substrate. In contrast, the color region 2018 (shown on the double cantilever) will be red because it is further away. IMods (2008 and 2010) are shown with stress gradients showing higher tensile stress at the top than at the bottom. Since the structural members deform properly, the color regions also change. In this case, region 2020 is red, but region 2022 is white.

In FIG. 20B, a system that can be used to quickly and accurately access the residual stress state of the deposited film is shown. Wafer 2030 includes an array of IMod structures consisting of single and double cantilevered membranes of varying length and width. Structural membranes are prepared from materials that characterize mechanical and residual stress properties. Many materials are possible, in which case, if IMods are not used for the display, many materials are subject to the necessary reflectance limit, which can be greatly reduced. Good candidates may be compatible or compatible from a manufacturing standpoint, exhibit some degree of refractive index, and include crystalline forms of materials (silicon, aluminum, germanium) whose mechanical properties can be characterized and characterized with high accuracy. do. These "test structures" are manufactured and released to exist independently. If the materials are not stressed, the structures should not show color deformation. However, if this is not the case, the color state or color maps may be recorded using a high resolution imaging device 2034 capable of obtaining high magnification images through the optical system 2032. have.

The imaging device is connected to a computer system 2036 that resides in hardware and is capable of recording and processing image data. The hardware may include high speed processing boards readily available to perform numerical calculations at high speed. The software may consist of collection routines to collect color information and calculate surface deformation. The core routine uses the deformation data to determine the optimal combination of uniform stress and stress gradient over the thickness of the membrane that can produce the overall shape.

One mode of implementation can generate a group of "virgin" test wafers with a detailed record of non-deposited stress conditions and leave them for radar use. If a demand arises to determine the residual stress of the deposited film, a test wafer is selected and the film is deposited on top of it. The deposited film changes the geometric structure of the structures, thus changing their color map. Using software residing in a computer system, color maps of the test wafers before and after can be compared, and an accurate assessment of the residual stress in the deposited film can be made. In addition, the test structures may be designed to operate after deposition. Observations on their behavior during operation with the newly deposited films can provide much more information about residual stresses and changes in film properties over multiple operating cycles.

This technique may also be used to determine the stress of the film upon deposition. With appropriate modifications of the deposition system, optical paths may be generated to cause the imaging system to observe the structures and track changes in their color maps in real time. This facilitates a real time feedback system to control deposition parameters when attempting to control residual stress in this manner. The software and hardware may periodically query the test wafer and may allow the deposition tool operator to change conditions as the film grows. This entire system is superior to other techniques for measuring residual stresses, which rely solely on electromechanical operation or measure the deformation of structures fabricated using more expensive and complex interferometer systems. The former is required to provide driving electronics to a large array of devices, and suffer from inaccuracies in measuring displacements electronically. The latter depends on the observation of the optical properties of the films and depends on the complexity of the external optics and hardware required.

Discontinuous membrane

Another class of materials with interesting properties is membranes whose structure is not homogeneous. Such membranes may occur in several forms, collectively referred to as discontinuous films. 21A shows one form of a discontinuous film. Substrate 2100 may be a metal, insulator, or semiconductor and has contours 2104, 2106, and 2108 etched into its surface. The contour includes an individual structural profile that must have a height 2110 that is a fraction of the wavelength of light of interest, and includes 2104 (triangle), 2106 (cylindrical), and 2108 (cloak). In order to obtain a profile similar to that shown in klopfenstein taper, it is etched using photolithographic and chemical etching techniques. Also, the effective diameter of the base 2102 of any of the individual profiles is similar to the height of the pattern. Although each contour is slightly different, all the contours share a common property that, as they cross from incident to the substrate, the effective refractive index gradually shifts from the refractive index of the incident medium to the refractive index of the membrane substrate 2100 itself. Structures of this type act as better antireflective coatings than those formed from a combination of thin films, because they do not experience that much from angle dependence. Thus, they maintain higher anti-reflection rates from a wider range of incidence angles.

FIG. 21B shows a coating 2120 deposited on a substrate 2122 and that may be made of metal, insulators, or semiconductors. In this case, the film is present in the formation of an initial stage, with a thickness of less than approximately 1000 Angstroms. During most deposition processes, the films undergo a gradual nucleation process whereby the films begin to bond with each other and at some point grow larger and larger until they form a continuous film. ). Reference numeral 2124 denotes a plan view of this film. The optical properties of the film at the initial stage are different from the continuous film. In the case of metals, the film tends to show higher losses than continuous equivalents.

21C shows a third form of discontinuous film. In this case, the film 2130 was deposited on the substrate 2132 with a thickness of at least one thousand angstroms so that it was considered continuous. The pattern of “subwavelength” (ie, diameter smaller than the wavelength of interest) holes 2134 are created in the material using techniques similar to the self-assembly method described above. In this case, the polymer can act as a mask to transfer the etching pattern to the holes and underlying material that are etched using reactive ion etching techniques. Since the material is continuous but penetrated, it does not behave like the initial stage membrane of FIG. 21B. Instead, its optical properties are different from unetched films in that incoming radiation suffers lower losses and may exhibit transmission peaks based on surface plasmons. In addition, the geometric structure of the hole and the angle of incidence and the refractive index of the incident medium may be processed to control the spectral characteristics of the transmitted light. Reference numeral 2136 denotes a plan view of this film. Membranes such as these are disclosed in Tae Jin Kim's article, "Control of optical transmission through metals perforated with subwavelength hole arrays." They are general in structure but different from PBGs.

All three discrete films of this type are candidates for inclusion in the IMod structure. That is, they operate as one or more metal films in the static and / or movable portions of the IMod structure. All three exhibit inherent optical properties that can be processed in a manner that depends primarily on the structure and geometric arrangement of the individual films instead of combinations of films with varying thicknesses. They may be used with other electronic, optical and mechanical elements that they may contain. In a very simple case, the optical properties of each of these films may be altered by bringing them into proximity or contact with other films through surface conduction or optical interference. This can occur by directly changing the membrane conductivity and / or by changing the effective refractive index of the surrounding medium. Thus, more complex optical responses to individual IMods can be achieved with simpler structures with less complex manufacturing processes.

Still other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

Claims (51)

A reflective display having an antireflective coating on the viewing surface of the display, And the antireflective coating is configured to increase the contrast ratio of the display. The method of claim 1, Reflective display having interferometric modulators. An arc-lamp structure having a monolithic fabrication on a planar substrate, The article of manufacture comprises an deposited thin film and / or material of the substrate, the thin film electrodes having an arc therebetween to form an arc therebetween. A transmissive or reflective display device comprising the arc-lamp structure of claim 3. Applying a bias voltage to the row (or column) of the device; And A line-at-a-time electronic drive method comprising alternately applying a data voltage to a column (or row) with respect to the bias voltage value, the method comprising: Operation of the device occurs when a difference between the data voltage values and a selection voltage is greater than a predetermined first level, Release of the device occurs when the difference between the data voltage values and the select voltage is less than a predetermined second lowest level, and And the device maintains its state when the select voltage is at the bias level. The method of claim 5, wherein And the device comprises multiple MEMS devices. A reflective display having pixel elements each configured to provide a controlled amount of white and saturated color; And And a controller for controlling the pixels to provide a full-color display. The method of claim 7, wherein And the display comprises interferometric modulators. A core non-universal processor reconfigurable to perform any selected one or more multiple software applications or functions; And An electronic product having a control element for causing a user to reconfigure the processor to use any software applications or functions. The method of claim 9, With more peripherals, The peripherals are used, reconfigured or accessible for interaction based on the configuration of the core processor. A cavity providing operation of the modulator; And An interferometric modulator having a separate cavity providing an interference effect. A structure associated with the operation of the modulator; And An interferometric modulator having an interferometer cavity having walls, And the structure is interrupted by at least one of the walls of the interferometer cavity. Thin film stacks; And An interferometric modulator having a structure associated with the operation of the modulator, The structure is deposited directly on the thin film stack, And the stack reflects a minimum amount of light by interference of the structure and the stack. In one mode of operation, it is constructed helically by induced residual stresses, and in another mode of operation, with movable walls that do not roll to form a plate that acts coherently with respect to light. Interferometric modulator. Retained on the supporting substrate, configured to selectively obstruct the optical path, cyclically movable relative to the hinge in the normal plane with respect to the supporting substrate surface, and at the plate and the substrate surface A monolithic MEM modulator having a movable plate driven by an electrostatic force applied between electrodes of the electrode. The method of claim 15, The color or dark state is provided by the interferometer properties of the thin film stacks deposited on the modulator structure. A supporting substrate; And And a moveable component for switching by movement in a plane parallel to the substrate plane. The method of claim 17, The movable component provides a electrical contact between the source and the drain. The method of claim 17, And the movable component has an insulating element. A voltage switching or logic component comprising the switch of claim 17. An electronic or MEMS-based device having the voltage switching or logic component of claim 20. And a structure having a refractive index that varies periodically along one or more of the at least two orthogonal axes. A light processing device comprising the micromechanical structure of claim 22. The method of claim 23, And select and / or redirect light of particular frequencies from the waveguide propagating multiple optical frequencies. The method of claim 24, And the movable portion of the structure is configured to introduce defects into the periodic photonic structure. The method of claim 24, And the movable portion of the structure is configured to move a multi-dimensional photonic structure to change the overall optical properties of the device. A method of manufacturing a multidimensional photonic structure in connection with a microelectromechanical structure, A method of making a multidimensional photonic structure, comprising holographic patterning or a self-assembly process of a polymer or a self-structured particle suspension. As a method of introducing defects into a multidimensional photonic structure, A beam of atomic or subatomic particles to modify a portion of the photonic structure by adding or removing material, by changing the optical properties of the material, or by using microelectron deposition to add the material. Using the method. As a method of introducing defects into a multidimensional photonic structure, Forming features on the substrate surface, wherein Wherein the features are configured to provide a location to manifest a defect in a later formed photonic structure. Board; And A device having an interferometric modulator manufactured on said substrate, And the interferometric modulator is configured to modulate light propagating in a direction substantially parallel to the substrate surface in the substrate on which the modulator is fabricated. Board; And A device having a metal MEM structure formed on the substrate, And the MEM structure is configured to modulate light propagating as guided waves. 32. The method of claim 30 and 31 wherein A modulator configured to act as a variable attenuator. Board; And A dynamic micromechanical structure having reflective optics on said substrate, The reflective optics, when in operation, redirects light entering the optics and propagating within the substrate towards another optical structure. Board; And A static micro-fabricated structure having a mirror fabricated on or near the substrate, And the mirror is configured to redirect the light that enters the mirror and propagates within the substrate. A dynamic micromechanical structure having a reflective optics and a fixed microstructure comprising the reflective optics; And An optical switch having two structures fabricated on opposite sides of a substrate / waveguide, In the reflective optical device, when a light beam propagating in the substrate / waveguide is incident on the dynamic structure in an operating state, the optical path of the combined reflective optical devices is a propagation path of light in the substrate / waveguide. Wherein the optical switch is directed to change arbitrarily. The method of claim 34, wherein And the reflective optics comprises a mirror. The method of claim 33, wherein And to couple light into or from the substrate. A micromechanical structure configured to process light propagating within the substrate / waveguide; And Optical device or electronic device configured to block or manipulate the light later. The method of claim 37, And an antireflective coating configured to couple and decouple light into and out of the substrate / waveguide. The method of claim 38, And further comprising an optical superstructure that can support a combination of static micro-fabricated components, dynamic micromechanical components, and electronic components, and attached to the substrate / waveguide. And a patterned block of insulating material deposited on the substrate / waveguide surface. The method of claim 37, And the micromechanical structure includes a tunable filter. A N x N optical switch comprising the device of claim 33, 34, or 37. 38. A wavelength selective switch comprising the device of claim 33, 34, or 37. 38. An optical mixer comprising the device of claim 33, 34, or 37. A method of making a micromechanical structure, Providing a continuous web of plastic supporting the substrate through a series of tools for deposition, patterning, and etching the deposited film. A method of measuring the residual stress of a deposited material comprising an interferometer cavity deformed by the deposition of the material to be measured, Determining the deformation of the microstructure by measuring a pattern of light wavelengths reflected by the cavity. The method of claim 44, And automatically determining the stress of the deposited material based on the pattern of reflected light. The method of claim 45, Determining the residual stress of the films during and after deposition. A dynamic micromechanical structure having a discontinuous insulator film, a metal film, or a semiconductor film, The optical properties of the film differ from the optical properties of the continuous film due to discontinuities. A dynamic micromechanical structure having an insulator film, a metal film, or a semiconductor film etched in a manner that produces a continuous change in the optical properties of the film through depth.